Profession, not a business;

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HASKINS & SELLS
NEW YORK CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
NEW ORLEANS
CHICAGO
KANSAS CITY
PHILADELPHIA SEATTLE
DETROIT DENVER
CLEVELAND BULLETIN ATLANTA
ST. LOUIS DALLAS
BOSTON TULSA
BALTIMORE WATERTOWN
PITTSBURGH LOS ANGELES LONDON
SAN FRANCISCO PARIS
BUFFALO HAVANA
CINCINNATI SHANGHAI
VOL. III NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 15, 1920 No. 9
A Profession, Not a Business
APROFESSION puts service above all
else. The professional man does not
blatantly advertise his accomplishments;
neither does he urge his services unduly on
those who may have need of them.
The relation between accountant and
client is like that which exists between
physician and patient. It is a confidential
one. It grows out of a desire on the part
of clients for highly skilled personal services.
The thought of a physician going about
from house to house soliciting practice is
exceedingly offensive. Imagine a physician
calling at the front door to inquire if there
is anyone in the house with an organic
disease requiring treatment. Imagine his
inquiring as to the attending physician and
what are his fees. Think of his offering to
take the case at a lower figure.
The analogy unfortunately is too often
found in the field of accountancy. There
are those engaged in professional account­ing
work who have no conception of the
ideals of a profession. They go deliberately
about the work of taking engagements
away from other accountants. They can­vass
the list of those who might need the
services of professional accountants. They
find out who, if any, are the accountants
retained. They inquire as to the fees.
They brazenly offer to render the service
for less.
The client, or the potential client, not
always grasping as clearly as he might the
philosophy underlying the accountancy
profession, is sometimes interested and
afterwards attracted by the thought of
saving money. He does not stop to con­sider
the unprofessional tactics of the
solicitor. He overlooks the possibility of a
difference in the quality of the service. He
does not realize that the first price is only
a scheme for obtaining the engagement
and that later the fee will be advanced.
He possibly does not know that accountants
with high ideals regard their work as
taking the form of professional practice
and not as a business.
There is only one thing to do. when some
unprofessional contemporary takes away
an engagement. There is only one re­course
when those who style themselves
professional accountants go from office to
office hawking their wares. The consola­tion
is to be found in harder work and
better service; service of the kind which
is so much better than any one else in the
same field renders, that those who have
need of such service will get in the way of
one another in seeking it.
The professional man is expected to
make himself known. The establishment
of acquaintance which comes through
getting about and mixing in the business
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